Cooling bed



Feb. 15, 1944.

E. W. MIKAELSON cooune BED I Filed Sept. 4, 1941 4 Shuts-Shut 1 Feb. 15, 1944. g w. MIKAELSON cooune BED Filed Sept. 4. 1941' 4 sh n-shut 2 Feb 15, 1944. E. w; MIKAELSON COOLING BED Filed Sept. 4, 1941 4 Sheets-$11601; s

E. w. MIKAELSON Feb. 15, 1944.

coouue am:

Filed Sept 4. 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Feb. 15, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COOLING BED Erik W. Mikaelson, Easton, Pa., assignor to Treadwell Engineering Company, Easton, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application September 4, 1941, Serial No. 409,581

2 Claims. (01. 80-42) This invention relates to plate cooling mechanisms and particularly to mechanisms of this type which are primarily designed and intended for use in the cooling of plates of relatively large size as they come from a plate mill.

A freshly rolled plate as it comes from a plate mill is quite hot and, before it can be sent to storage or sent on to machines for further processing the same, it must be allowed to cool to a substantial extent. It has been customary heretofore to provide, when necessary, cooling beds of such length and width as to be able to receive and support highly heated plates of relatively large size and which support these plates in such manner that they remain truly plane while cool. ing and so that all areas thereof including both undersurface and the upper surface areas, are exposed to the atmosphere. One form of such cooling bed heretofore designed and constructed includes a large number of relatively narrow rollers, resembling disks, all of such rollers or disks being supported for rotation about parallel horizontal axes and preferably being of the sam diameter, a plate placed on such a bed being supported at a multiplicity of closely adjacent points so that it will remain truly flat .or plane while cooling. The disks are driven slowly in a common direction of rotation so that the plate is slowly moved in a predetermined direction as it cools, the cooling bed being of such length that, for a given angular velocity of the plate-supporting rolls, the plate will be cooled to the proper degree when it has completed its travel across the bed and is ready for removal.

A conveyor of the roller type is usually provided for rapidly transporting each freshly rolled plate from the vicinity of the rolling mill into a position closely adjacent one end of the cooling bed, i. e., into position to be fed onto the cooling bed, and a second conveyor is usually provided for receiving from the cooling bed plates which have been sufficiently cooled and for transmitting such plates rapidly to a storage point, or to shears, or to other machines for further processing the same. Various mechanisms for elfecting the transfer of a plate from the first conveyor onto the cooling bed, and for transferring cooled plates from the cooling bed onto the second conveyor have heretofore been designed and sugges ed, but no such previously proposed mechanism has been wholly acceptable to the rolling mill operator who has been primarily concerned with the production of a plate of high quality and free from scratches and scorings.

Numerous conveyors, cooling beds and transfer assemblies have heretofore been placed in actual use, but in no case has it been proposed to so design these .mechanisms that marring to a greater or less extent of the undersurfaces of the plates passing across these mechanisms may not occur. If the plate is dragged from the feeding conveyor onto the cooling bed its bottom will be heavily scratched and these scratches will not, in the usual case, be removed by any subsequent processing operations, but will appear in the finished product. When the plate is to be subsequently rolled and given a bright mirror finish it is, of course, highly objectionable that any surface be marred by scratching.

It is the purpose of the present invention to provide an improvedtype of plate-transfer mechanism by means of which plates may be rapidly transmitted to and placed upon a cooling bed, advanced across the cooling bed, and rapidly removed and transferred to a further machine without scarring, scratching or damaging the undersurfaces of the plates in any manner. The improved mechanism may be operated with great ease, is relatively simple, inexpensive to construct and durable inroperation. It includes a number of novel features of construction all of which will be hereinafter described in detail.

One important feature of novelty comprises an improved means for supporting and driving the various plate-supporting disks of the cooling bed portion of the apparatus, each such disk-supporting and driving means including a rotatable shaft and simple and effective means associated with the shaft whereby such shaft is shielded from the heat of the plate immediately above it, thus preventing warping, the heat-shielding means for the shaft likewise being so supported and mounted on the shaft that any play or looseness which may otherwise be caused by expansion and contractionof the metallic parts is prevented. Other features of novelty will be apparent to one skilled in the art and will be pointed out in the appended claims.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings in which, Figure 1 is a plan view of the improved platecooling and handling mechanism, partially broken away, the cooling bed proper being shown and likewise the plate-feeding and plate-removal conveyors;

Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Figure 1, on a larger scale;

Figure 3 shows in .plan certain elements of the cooling bed, the plate-removal conveyor or table and the transfer mechanism for transferring plates from the cooling bed to the plateremoval conveyor, certain portions of the mechanism being broken away to show operating elements which would otherwise be hidden; and

Figure 4 is a vertical axial section through one of the heat shielded supporting shafts of the cooling bed which carries a series of plate-supporting elements. 4

The cooling bed proper is indicated at A in Figure 1 and this bed may be of any width or length, the plate-feeding conveyor or table for incoming plates being indicated at B and the plate-removal conveyor or outgoing table being indicated at C. A plate which has been moved onto the plate-feeding conveyor B, and into position to be transferred onto the cooling bed, is indicated in chain lines at D, a second plate which has been transferred from the incoming conveyor to the cooling bed is indicated at E. a third plate which is ready for transfer from the delivery end of the cooling bed onto the plateremoval conveyor C is indicated at F, and a fourth plate, which has already been transferred to the plate removal conveyor is indicated at G. Plates moving toward position D from the rolling mill will move in the direction indicated by the arrow K, or in the reverse direction, plates moving across the cooling bed will move in the direc-' tion indicated by the arrow M and plates supported on the plate-removal conveyor and being removed from the vicinity of the bed A will move in the direction indicated by the arrow 0, or in the reverse direction.

The cooling bed proper A comprises essentially a very considerable number of horizontally disposed parallel shafts suitably supported upon bearings and each of which carries a number of plate-supporting disks. In Figure 4 a portion of'one of these shafts is indicated at In, such shaft being supported in roller bearings. H

mounted upon pedestals l2. the shaft I!) being preferably supported at each end and, if necessary, at intermediate points by pedestals and bearings such as shown in Figure 4. The platesupporting elements are indicated at P and each is in the form of an annulus having a central cylindrical hub IS, a peripheral ring l4 concentric with the hub and the cylindrical outer surface of which comprises the plate-engaging surface of the element, together with a connecting web H. The hub I 3 of each plate-supporting element is splined to the shaft l so that the element must necessarily rotate with the shaft but may slide lon itudinally thereon. Intermediate pairs of supporting pedestals [2 there may be conveniently placed a plurality of platesupportin elements of the type described. one of these elements. adiacent one pedestal i2, bein provided with an enlarged hub which is pinned to the shaft. so as to prevent any relative movement of the element and shaft. by means of a pin t. Adjacent the oppos te pedestal l2 there is lik wise pinned to the shaft. by means of a pin H. a collar H2. The several plate-sun ort inn. elements P intermediate the collar 18 and that element P which is pinned to the shaft. are held in fixed. s aced relation by tubular spacing elements 2 o metal, which elements likewise comprise, taken together, a heat shield which prevents overheating and distortion of shaft In by the heat radiating from the late supported by elements such a plate bein indicated for instance at H in Fi ure' l. The huh I 30f each element P is provided with an annular shoulder to receive the end of a tubular heat shield member 20, the several shoulders of these hubs l3 being concentric with the axis of the shaft in, A sliding collar 2| similarly supports the end of that heat shielding and spacing member which lies intermediate the fixed element P and the next adjacent element, a coiled compression spring 22, having one end bearing against collar 2! and its opposite end against the hub of the fixed element F. Spring 22 functions to maintain a substantial pressure against the sliding collar 2| at all times; tending to move this collar longitudinally of the shaft and thus preventing any looseness of engagement of the several tubular sections 20 with the intermediate plate-supporting elements P, quite regardless of longitudinal expansion and contraction of the tubular heat shielding and spacing members 28 resulting from changes in temperature. v

It will be appreciatedthat these members, which directly underlie the heated plates passing over the cooling bed, are positioned so closely to the plates that they are inevitably heated and hence are caused to lengthen when the bed is placed in operation and will later contract when the operation of the bed is discontinued. Tight contact of the several heat shielding and spacing members with the intermediate supporting elements P will be maintained at all times, however. by reason of the functioning of spring 22 so that looseness or play between the several parts will not develop. At the same time the shaft III is well protected against excessive heating and hence warping of this shaft will not occur.,

The several shafts I0 may be driven simultaneously and at the same angular velocities by any suitable means. The means illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings includes a motor-, driven shaft 30 extending longitudinally of the cooling bed, this shaft being operatively (con nected to every third shaft ID by intermeshing bevel gears such as indicated at 3|, each pair of such gears being housedwithin .a suitably supported casing 32. Each shaft It! thus directly driven from shaft 30, is connected by chains 33; 34, respectively, to the adjacent parallel shafts l0, suitable sprockets being mounted upon the shafts for the purpose of making the chain drives effective. Hence all shafts ID of the cooling bed will be driven at the same identical angular velocity from a single source of power and, of course, the plate-supporting and advancing disks or elements P, which are identical in diameter, will be driven at the same angular velocity. A plate placed on the cooling bed A so as to occupy position E will be advanced in the direction of the arrow M across the bed until it reaches the position such as indicated at F, its undersurface being in contact at all times with a substantial number of the plate-supporting and advancing elements P so that the plate will remain fiat or plane at all timeswhile its upper surface and substantially its entire lower surface is exposed to the air, the area of contact between each element P and the plate above it being very small. The rate of advancement of the plate across the cooling bed may be regulated as may be desired in order to secure the desired drop in temperature.

The plate-feeding and plate-removal conveyors B and C, respectively, may be of identical construction or may differ somewhat in details as actually shown in the drawings. Essentially the plate-feeding conveyor comprises a series of 2,341,642 .par-allel horizontally disposed shafts 40 the ends of which are mounted in suitable supporting bearings H and :42, respectively, and each of which carries a plurality of plate-supporting disks 43. All of these shafts Ml, with the disks .43 mounted thereon, are driven from a single source of power at the same angular velocity, a driving motor being indicated at .M and this motor being operatively connected to the elongated shaft 45 which shaft is in turn operatively i taken from the drive shaft i and transmitted to the several rollers 50 by the intermeshing bevel gears indicated atv 51st and 5. 522. respectively. An electric motor 52 may be employed for driving shaft 5!, suitable gearing housed Within casing 52a operatively connecting the motor shaft to the driving shaft 51.

A transfer mechanism now to be described is employed to effect the transfer of a sheet or plate which has reached position D (Figure 1) onto the adjacent end of the cooling bed and a second transfer mechanism, which is similar 52,

but reversely positioned, is utilized to transmit a relatively cool plate from position F onto the plate removal conveyor 0. These transfer mechanisms are preferably identical in design and construction and only one is illustrated in detail, such mechanism being shown in Figures 2 and 3. In Figure 2, which is a section through a portion of the cooling bed and through the plate-removal conveyor, one of the rollers 5i of the plate-removal conveyor is shown and likewise several of the driven shafts H! of the cooling bed portion of the apparatus. A plate, indicated at G, which has just been removed from the cooling bed and is supported just above the rollers 50 of the plate-removal conveyor, is shown to be supported upon a plurality of disks 53, these disks 53, in their plate-supporting positions, being shown in dotted lines in Figure 2 and being shown in their inoperative positions in full lines in this same figure. The several disks 53 are arranged in pairs as shown in Figure 3, the disks of each pair being mounted upon the ends of a short shaft 53a which is in turn supported in spaced bearings in a rocking frame 54. One end of the frame 54 is supported upon spaced bearings 54a which encircle that shaft In of the cooling bed which is closest to the plate-removal conveyor, and which shaft is indicated at la in the drawings to more definitely identify it.

The elongated supporting frame 55 extends transversely of the plate-removal conveyor from the shaft Hi0, substantially to the opposite side of the conveyor and is seen to lie intermediate two adjacent parallel rollers 59. It is adapted to be raised and lowered through the space between adjacent rollers of the plate-removal conveyor, between the positions in which it is shown in full and dotted lines in Figure 2, power being taken from an electric motor 55 which is caused to operate, through speed reduction gearing housed within the casing 55, the rotatable shaft 5?. Shaft 51 carries an arm 58 the outer end of which is connected by a link 59 to one end of an arm 60 of a bell crank lever mounted for rotation about a fixed axis and supported in a bearing 6! mounted upon a base 62, the other arm =63 of the bell crank lever being connected by the vertically disposed link 54 with the rocking frame 54.

The various short shafts 53a carried by the rocking frame 54 are interconnected by chains and sprockets such for instance as indicated at 65 and 66, respectively, in Figure 3, and there is fixed on shaft Illa a sprocket 6'! connected by means of a chain 68 to a sprocket 69 fixed upon the adjacent short shaft 53a. When shaft Illa revolves, therefore, the cooling bed is in operation and simultaneous rotation of all of the short shafts 53a carried by the severalrockin frames 56 is effected, all of the disks 53 being thereby driven from shaft {0a. Inasmuch as the disks 53 are equal in diameter to disks P of the cooling bed, and are driven at the same angular velocity, the peripheral speed of each of these disks will be identical with the peripheral speed of each of the disks P of the cooling bed.

In the operation of this transfermechanism the motor 55 will be energized whenever a plate which has reached the position F is to be withdrawn from the cooling bed and deposited upon the plate-removal conveyor 0 to raise the rocking frame 54 until the plate-supporting disks 53 mounted thereon are in the positions in which they are shown in dotted lines in Figure 2, the plane defined by the uppermost elements of the plate-engaging cylindrical outer surfaces of these disks being above the plane of the uppermost elements of rollers of the plate-removal conveyor. Hence the plate will be moved by the transfer rolls to a position directly above the rollers of the plate-removal conveyor, at the same speed at which it moved over the cooling bed. During this movement there will, of course, be no possibility of scratching or scarring of the undersurfaces of the plates, the transfer mechanism as a matter of fact, functioning as a vertically displaceable portion of the cooling bed itself, the transfer rollers being driven at the identical peripheral speeds as the cooling bed plate-supporting disks.

, promptly effects the removal of the plate from the Vicinity of the cooling bed. As the next succeeding plate reaches the discharge end of the cooling bed the rocking frames 54 are again elevated and the operation is repeated, removal of the plates being effected rapidly and smoothly and without possibility of scratchin or scarring of the undersurfaces thereof due to dragging over stationary parts or parts not moving at the same velocities as the plates.

In order to eifect the transfer from the platefeeding conveyor B to the cooling bed A of highly heated plates, a similar transfer mechanism is provided, the details of construction of which are in all respects identical with those of the transfer mechanism which has just been described and which is shown most clearly in Figures 2 and 3. In this case the power for operating the plate-supporting disks 53 of the transfer mechanisms will be taken from the end shaft |b of the cooling bedand the rocking frames 54 will extend from this shaft outwardly transversely of the plate-feeding conveyor B or toward the left (Figure 1). Except for this reversal the transfer mechanism associated with the platefeeding conveyor B is identical with that associated with the plate-removal conveyor C and its mode of operation is the same, save only the plateengaging and supporting disks which comprise elements of the transfer mechanism are rotated in such direction that a plate is transferred onto the cooling bed instead of being removed therefrom. Under the circumstances it is deemed to be unnecessary to include in the drawings detailed views of the transfer mechanism associated with the plate-feeding conveyor.

It will further be appreciated that minor changes may be mad in the design and arrangement of the component elements of the invention without departure therefrom, particularly in adapting the invention to the cooling of the plates of various sizes and thicknesses.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination, a plate cooling bed having movable elements for supporting a hot plate in a horizontal plane, a plurality of parallel rotatably mounted shafts upon each of which a plurality of said elements is mounted, means for driving said shafts to cause said movable elements to ad- Vance a supported plate in a predetermined direction, a conveyor for bringing plates to a feeding position closely adjacent one end of the cooling bed, a transfer mechanism movable vertically relatively to said conveyor to engage and elevate above said conveyor a plate which has been brought to such feeding positions, said transfer mechanism including plate supporting members rotatable about parallel axes, a vertically movable support for said members carried in part upon one of said shafts, and a driving connection between the shaft upon which support is in part carried and said plate supporting members.

2. In combination, a plate cooling bed having movable elements for supporting a hot plate in a horizontal plane, a plurality of parallel rotatably mounted shafts upon each of which a plurality of said elements is mounted, means for driving said shafts to cause said movable elements to advance a supported plate in a predetermined direction, a conveyor for bringing plates to a feeding position closely adjacent one end of the cooling bed, a transfer mechanism movable vertically relatively to said conveyor to engage and elevate above said conveyor a plate which has been brought to such feeding positions, said transfer mechanism including plate supporting members rotatable about parallel axes, a support for said rotatable members having one end mounted for rocking movement in a vertical plane upon one of said shafts, and a driving connection between the shaft upon which the end of the support is mounted and said rotatable members.

ERIK W. MIKAELSON. 

